1. Sales Solutions
What was the sales challenge?
Targeting new audiences with cloud solutions has
meant negotiating a new and more rapid sales cycle.
“It’s the difference between a decision taking two
years and a decision taking two weeks,” explains
APJ Sales Productivity & Enablement Lead, Mark
Ghaderi. “People buying cloud solutions don’t tend
to look around and talk to ten different vendors.
These are younger managers, often in their 20s or
30s, who are comfortable with technology and
accustomed to making quick decisions. It was
absolutely essential that we could get to them
quickly, and establish ourselves as subject matter
experts.”
For the Inside Sales team, a particular focus has
been nurturing leads amongst those not quite ready
to buy when a sales rep first contacts them. Careful
management of this pipeline has been essential for
ensuring that SAP is in pole position when a
decision is ready to be taken. On the field sales side,
the transition to cloud solutions has often required
expanding reps’ contacts within a client organisation
– and connecting to C-suite decision-makers. Reps
needed a more advanced tool for highly tailored
relationship mapping, with real-time visibility on role
changes.
About SAP
Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, with locations in more
than 130 countries, SAP is the world leader in enterprise
software and software-related services.
SAP’s considerable success has been built on its centerpiece
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which is today
used by 80% of Fortune 1000 companies. In recent years
however, SAP has placed an increasing focus on nimble,
cloud solutions. SAP is today the world’s biggest provider of
cloud solutions.
Who are the target audience?
The world has changed since the global financial crisis. And
so has the way companies buy. B2B purchases involve more
stakeholders, many of which don’t have an IT background.
Tech sales executives have to engage with Line Of Business
owners and business managers across the enterprise.
The explosive growth of cloud solutions has introduced a
new type of buyer and the need to reach out to smaller
companies that may not be traditional buyers of SAP’s core
solutions. SAP’s sales team must also guide existing clients
through the transition to the cloud, providing reassurance
and stressing the brand’s expertise in the field.
SAP Case Study

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What about the results?
Mark worked closely with the SAP teams to maximize value
for the Sales Navigator investment from the start, using
word-of-mouth to spread enthusiasm across the organisation.
Results were hugely positive across the region’s varied
territories, from Singapore and Hong Kong to rapid-growth
markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and India. Even
in North Asian markets, reps were able to find and engage
CXO decision makers through LinkedIn.
Inside Sales found immediate value in using Sales Navigator
for high-volume but highly targeted prospecting, with reps
able to engage successfully with CXO decision-makers. Field
sales followed suit, realizing large-scale benefits from
multi-threading and deeper account penetration. Leveraging
warm introductions from expanded networks and getting
real-time visibility on role changes has enabled highly
tailored relationship mapping.
• Sales Navigator has proved equally effective across all
business cultures in the region, from North Asian
markets such as China, and Korea to South Asian
markets like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philip-
pines and India
• From an initial pilot of 50 seats in South East Asia, ANZ
and India, SAP has scaled up to 500 seats within its first
year, and will shortly roll-out a further 1,000 licenses
• Reps using Sales Navigator have the highest Social
Selling Index (SSI) and score nearly twice as high as
industry peers
What did SAP do to achieve this success?
Key to success was executive sponsorship from leaders
like Jose Aramburu, VP Inside Sales, and Mark Ghaderi,
APJ sales productivity head. LinkedIn’s Instruct
programme provided comprehensive train-the-trainer
workshops in the US equipping Mark to take ownership
of the programme. This was supported through local
training, on-demand tutorials and videos, and social
selling workshops.
SAP leaders undertook social selling manager training to
ensure they could lead by example and make social
selling part of the review process. Additional training for
reps and leaders included professional branding,
thought leadership via targeted content sharing, blog
posts, rich media content, and use of LinkedIn groups to
expand networks. Quarterly social selling blitz days and
town hall meetings helped to turn early adopters into
regional role models.
In their own words:
The value delivered by LinkedIn Sales Navigator for SAP APJ:
“With the updated data
lists on LinkedIn, it’s easier
to target the CEOs of
businesses that I’m
targeting for cloud
solutions in China. It has
really shortened the sales
cycle.”
Charles Ruan,
Account Manager,
SAP China
Highly tailored
relationship mapping
“The most impressive results
come when they start
posting content. Search has
been hugely useful, but
there’s also an appetite
amongst our reps to take
things to the next level and
become thought leading
contributors.”
Mark Ghaderi,
SPJ Sales Productivity &
Enablement lead, SAP
“I used Sales Navigator’s
Advanced Search to
locate the right contact for
Telematics and Infotronics
at one of India's leading
auto manufacturers. The
right contact came up as
the very first search result,
and the executive
responded to my insight
led InMail to set up a
meeting, uncovering a
large opportunity in an
emerging market space.”
Zubin Baben,
Business Manager, SAP
India Private Limited
Making direct contact
with decision-makers
“LinkedIn is hugely
important for our
Demand Nurturing
Agents. Sales Navigator
enables us to transform
our sales process by
finding and engaging the
right decision makers with
relevant content and key
insights in a program-
matic way – and that’s
created a significant
number of opportunities.”
Mark Ghaderi,
SPJ Sales Productivity &
Enablement lead, SAP
Nurturing leads in the
pipeline
The ideal content
delivery platform
Sales Navigator directly
responsible for several individual
deals of
US$300K
$300K+
or more
Sales pipeline
increased by
more than
4Min revenues directly attributable to Sales
Navigator in Asia from first phase